Milan travels to Knox to open conference play

Wednesday

Sep 25, 2013 at 10:45 PM

Ryan Ronan @RyanRonan_KDE

After facing one of the better passing attacks at the Class 1 level last week against Paris, Knox County now must switch their mindset as they prepare to face one of the top rushing attacks when they face Milan on Friday night.

It is the Tri-Rivers Conference opener for both teams. KC is coming off a last-minute loss to the Coyotes as the Wildcats come in rested and prepared as they had a bye week in Week 4.Changing defensive philosophies is going to be a key for the Eagles.

“Our defense stresses the importance of taking care of responsibilities and playing within the defense. We talk about Milan’s offense all season because it is an offense that if you do not take care of your responsibility than Milan will capitalize on it,” said Knox County head coach Alex VanDelft.

The Wildcats run their system as well as any team, which forces teams to be on top of their game on both sides of the ball.

“Milan is one of the most technically sound team’s we play. They have made very few mental mistakes on offense and defense. They are also very good at capitalizing on opposing teams mistakes. We are going to have to play the most fundamentally-sound football game we have played this year or it will be a very long night for us,” said VanDelft.

KC has faced a non-conference schedule that has featured diversity. Scotland runs (their first meeting with the Tigers was a non-conference game) a similar system to Milan, but Paris went three-to-four wide on almost every play. They faced a physical style similar to Milan to open the season when they traveled to Marceline.

“Our non-conference schedule has prepared us for many different types of teams. Playing Paris and Fayette prepared us for spread offenses. Marceline and Scotland are both teams that have strong backs that run hard. We hope seeing the physical offense that we have seen when we played Marceline and Scotland will help us prepare for a physical style of offense that Milan plays,” said VanDelft.

The Eagles may enter this match-up with a little extra confidence knowing they played Milan as close as anyone last year and held the Wildcats to 37 points, the second-fewest scored in a Milan win.

“Knox is a lot different this year and so is Milan. Right now, defensively we have seen glimpses of becoming a good defense. Last week, our run defense improved but our pass defense was a weakness. We will need to see improve on both aspects of the defense to be able slow down a Milan offense that has yet to be stopped,” said VanDelft.

The ’Cats have shown they are not only a ground and pound team this season. Quarterback Ryan Kuehn threw for close to 200 yards and three scores in Milan’s Week 2 win over Albany.If KC has any plans on ending the Milan 23-game regular season winning streak they will need starting quarterback and safety Donovan Edwards to be on the field as much as possible. Edwards played last week with a bum hamstring that was injured in KC’s Week 3 win over Fayette.

“Donovan's hamstring was better this Monday than last Monday, which is encouraging. I know Donovan will do whatever possible to be on the field for the entire game,” said VanDelft.Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Edina.